rossmum
February 24th, 2012, 02:27 PM
A while back, a friend linked me to a trailer of some game with a silly name (that could be abbreviated to 'wee', heh) and was made by the dudes behind RUSE. I have never played RUSE but while it sounded like there were some cool ideas behind it, the game did not seem to be very well received. Then I saw this game was about the Cold War and I took great interest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaIe9T_VDWc
Wargame: European Escalation (henceforth 'WEE') is an interesting concept in RTS gaming. There is absolutely no basebuilding involved, which isn't really new or revolutionary; the scale is huge, but this was done eons ago by Total Annihilation; you assemble your available army pre-match, but this was done by a number of games as well, and finally, it's got control zones gameplay, which is older than PC gaming itself. What it does that isn't a retread of already-explored ground is to take all of these things and put them in a single package, creating arguably one of the deepest, yet most accessible, RTS games I have ever seen. Let's look at a few aspects.
First off, the scale of the game. Maps are enormous, encompassing several tens, if not hundreds, of square kilometres. NATO symbology keeps you in touch when you're fully zoomed out ('satellite view'), but you can zoom in all the way down to that single anti-tank squad you have set up in a hedgerow. The level of detail is insane - comparable to games like Men of War or World in Conflict despite the maps being many dozens of times the size - but the game somehow runs like a dream, even on high settings. Several maps have whole areas which have no objectives, serving as scouting or even flanking routes. Terrain obstacles and forests provide cover and concealment, as to buildings. You can spawn a goddamn lot of units, too.
http://i.imgur.com/7ybwph.jpg
The big picture...
http://i.imgur.com/N3VHIh.jpg
The not-so-big picture.
Gameplay isn't as shallow as you might think from screenshots. While there are very, very few commands, the depth of detail in units and how they interact is pretty impressive. Players rely on a points pool to spawn units, and this replenishes and continues to grow very slowly over time. Units will burn through ammo and fuel, which must be resupplied using logistics units and FOBs, and all units have morale; they become less effective with anxiety and will eventually panic and rout if things are getting really bad for them. The game is more about the big picture than most games of the genre, but it does allow for (and at times require) micromanagement of individual units. There is no tactical aid mechanic like WiC, so you have to rely on actual units for support.
http://i.imgur.com/Dlo7Sh.jpg
The Mi-26 Halo, the largest helicopter in the world, is a Soviet supply unit. It's fucking huge.
http://i.imgur.com/SYpNMh.jpg
The soldiers' perspective from the ground is really quite a lot different from the satellite view, and it can give some pretty good insight into exactly what your units will or will not be able to see and engage.
There are a couple of different gametypes, but the most popular is your typical take-and-hold territories affair. Territories can unlock new forward spawn points, but must be captured using a command vehicle. No other unit can actually capture land. There are even sub-variations, with different win triggers (most games use destruction, which means that points are tied to kills rather than land gains). There is also a singleplayer campaign which serves both as a tutorial and as an easy means of getting a boost for early unit unlocks.
Army customisation is a big thing in this game. There are a plethora of units available from a variety of nations, each with their own quirks and advantages/disadvantages. You don't have to stray outside of one nation, but the option is there if you want to - units are unlocked with command stars (gained by levelling up in multiplayer, or completing objectives in campaign), and can be moved in or out of army 'decks' which themselves can be activated or deactivated at will.
http://i.imgur.com/juyiyh.jpg
A Soviet spearhead unit, scouting ahead of an attack
http://i.imgur.com/CzbbJh.jpg
T-72s blazing through the wheatfields of West Germany
Multiplayer is where this game truly shines. It supports up to 8 players in ranked or unranked matches, supports clans (or 'teams' ingame), and tracks statistics over your career. There is an excellent replay feature (which all of the screenshots in this post were taken with) that allows you to see what happened from the perspective of any player or a neutral, omniscient observer, with slow motion and up to 10x real time acceleration. This is a fucking brilliant tool for conducting post-mortems on your battles and figuring out what went wrong, or even what went right. You could probably also make some sick as fuck movies with it, too.
I was planning on making this longer, but I am not entirely with it after a long night of stomping pubbies. My PC also wants a restart because my goddamn video card is shitting the bed again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaIe9T_VDWc
Wargame: European Escalation (henceforth 'WEE') is an interesting concept in RTS gaming. There is absolutely no basebuilding involved, which isn't really new or revolutionary; the scale is huge, but this was done eons ago by Total Annihilation; you assemble your available army pre-match, but this was done by a number of games as well, and finally, it's got control zones gameplay, which is older than PC gaming itself. What it does that isn't a retread of already-explored ground is to take all of these things and put them in a single package, creating arguably one of the deepest, yet most accessible, RTS games I have ever seen. Let's look at a few aspects.
First off, the scale of the game. Maps are enormous, encompassing several tens, if not hundreds, of square kilometres. NATO symbology keeps you in touch when you're fully zoomed out ('satellite view'), but you can zoom in all the way down to that single anti-tank squad you have set up in a hedgerow. The level of detail is insane - comparable to games like Men of War or World in Conflict despite the maps being many dozens of times the size - but the game somehow runs like a dream, even on high settings. Several maps have whole areas which have no objectives, serving as scouting or even flanking routes. Terrain obstacles and forests provide cover and concealment, as to buildings. You can spawn a goddamn lot of units, too.
http://i.imgur.com/7ybwph.jpg
The big picture...
http://i.imgur.com/N3VHIh.jpg
The not-so-big picture.
Gameplay isn't as shallow as you might think from screenshots. While there are very, very few commands, the depth of detail in units and how they interact is pretty impressive. Players rely on a points pool to spawn units, and this replenishes and continues to grow very slowly over time. Units will burn through ammo and fuel, which must be resupplied using logistics units and FOBs, and all units have morale; they become less effective with anxiety and will eventually panic and rout if things are getting really bad for them. The game is more about the big picture than most games of the genre, but it does allow for (and at times require) micromanagement of individual units. There is no tactical aid mechanic like WiC, so you have to rely on actual units for support.
http://i.imgur.com/Dlo7Sh.jpg
The Mi-26 Halo, the largest helicopter in the world, is a Soviet supply unit. It's fucking huge.
http://i.imgur.com/SYpNMh.jpg
The soldiers' perspective from the ground is really quite a lot different from the satellite view, and it can give some pretty good insight into exactly what your units will or will not be able to see and engage.
There are a couple of different gametypes, but the most popular is your typical take-and-hold territories affair. Territories can unlock new forward spawn points, but must be captured using a command vehicle. No other unit can actually capture land. There are even sub-variations, with different win triggers (most games use destruction, which means that points are tied to kills rather than land gains). There is also a singleplayer campaign which serves both as a tutorial and as an easy means of getting a boost for early unit unlocks.
Army customisation is a big thing in this game. There are a plethora of units available from a variety of nations, each with their own quirks and advantages/disadvantages. You don't have to stray outside of one nation, but the option is there if you want to - units are unlocked with command stars (gained by levelling up in multiplayer, or completing objectives in campaign), and can be moved in or out of army 'decks' which themselves can be activated or deactivated at will.
http://i.imgur.com/juyiyh.jpg
A Soviet spearhead unit, scouting ahead of an attack
http://i.imgur.com/CzbbJh.jpg
T-72s blazing through the wheatfields of West Germany
Multiplayer is where this game truly shines. It supports up to 8 players in ranked or unranked matches, supports clans (or 'teams' ingame), and tracks statistics over your career. There is an excellent replay feature (which all of the screenshots in this post were taken with) that allows you to see what happened from the perspective of any player or a neutral, omniscient observer, with slow motion and up to 10x real time acceleration. This is a fucking brilliant tool for conducting post-mortems on your battles and figuring out what went wrong, or even what went right. You could probably also make some sick as fuck movies with it, too.
I was planning on making this longer, but I am not entirely with it after a long night of stomping pubbies. My PC also wants a restart because my goddamn video card is shitting the bed again.